You feel prepared for the interview. You know about the company, know about the job and know who you'll be speaking with. You're 10 minutes into the interview and unexpectedly blind sided by questions you don't know the answers to.
First you fumble for responses and try to 'wing it', but the interviewer senses your confusion and presses you further. Finally, when you're completely flustered, you realize the interview is almost over and your chances of getting the job have been diminishing by the minute.
Sound familiar? If you're Sarah Palin you not only lived this nightmare situation, but also became an object of public mockery as a result. Thanks to the internet and the comedic talents of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live fame, the entire world could watch the failure again and again.
Imagine if all of us had our most embarrassing interview moments blasted all over TV and the internet. Ms. Palin's interview with Katie Couric is a blueprint of potential disasters waiting to happen when you do not properly prepare for interviews. But her rebound during the vice presidential debate a few weeks later is a testimonial to great interview preparation what it can do for you.
Sarah had been chosen a few weeks earlier by Republican presidential contender John McCain to be his running mate for the vice presidency. As we all know, they were pitted against the eventual winner, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama and his running mate Joe Biden.
Sarah was automatically expected to be a savvy, competent political player to go against that level of competition. Every question Ms. Palin was asked by Katie Couric should have been expected and prepared for. Katie did not throw any questions at her that were either 'below the belt' or even 'out of left field'. These were legitimate questions which could have been turned into real home runs for Sarah if she had been ready.
You may remember Katie's question asking Sarah to name some Supreme Court decisions with which she disagreed. While this may be a common question at interviews in certain legal firms, you could see that one leave the Alaskan Governor looking for the exits. Can you imagine having that question sprung on you during your interview at the local bank?
However, a potential vice presidential candidate should have been prepared to answer Katie's question. Her team should have anticipated that one and have an answer ready and waiting. They did not anticipate the question and as a result Sarah got blind sided.
I use Sarah Palin's experiences as an example precisely because they were so public and are so familiar to most of us. We can relate as we have all been in uncomfortable interview situations. But what can you do to prevent the awkwardness and the potential harm to your job chances and career caused by unexpected and difficult interview questions?
What you do is exactly what Sarah Palin's handlers did a few short weeks later. To prepare her for the vice presidential debate against Joe Biden, her team worked hard. Before the debate, Sarah was given a crash course in every expected subject likely to be discussed in the debate and possible questions. In addition, she was prepped on how to incorporate discussion points that she wanted to get across to voters into her answers. Her improved preparation was obvious and well done under the circumstances and considering the time available.
Having prepared many thousands of candidates for interviews in my career, I knew what to look for. Most of it was text book preparation techniques with debate tactics thrown in. The outcome was a reasonable showing for Sarah, she didn't win but she didn't lose. She did what she needed to do in this instance. Considering the expectations at the time, not losing was akin to a successful interview.
And make no mistake about it, that debate and the Katie Couric interview were interview situations for the job of Vice President of The United States. In this case the American People were the hiring managers and they were watching press sit-down interviews and the debates closely. In your job interviews you should incorporate similar preparation techniques only without the debate tactics. Good interview preparation offers many advantages:
A) You won't lose job offers because of an inability to respond to clear, logical questions.
B) Preparation allows you to showcase yourself by turning hard questions around to your advantage.
C) Your confidence level in interviews will significantly improve.
D) You will feel more relaxed.
The keys to successfully answering the hard job interview questions are anticipation, strategy and practice. First, you must look closely at the situation and then anticipate what questions might possibly be asked of you. Consider the job, your experience, the company and with whom you will interview. Second, you should devise a strategy to answer all questions in such a way that it helps you achieve your goal of a job offer. Finally, you must practice, practice, practice the answers until they becomes second nature.
This might sound like a lot of work and it can be, but having experience with the job in question makes the preparation easier. If you already have related job experience then you just have to prepare for difficult questions which are more general in nature. However, if you do not have any related experience, you must also prepare for difficult questions specific to the job, along with the more general ones.
A great thing is that if you prepare correctly once, it becomes part of you. In future interviews you'll only need to customize your answers to fit other interview. You will not have to redo ninety percent of this preparation, just some tweaking will be enough. With each interview, you'll get better and the answers will flow more conversationally in an unscripted manner.
No. of Times this article has been viewed :
657
Date Published :
Apr 11 2009